Climate change forces honey hunters to reach for new heights

This article was taken from the August 2014 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by <span class="s1">subscribing online.

Hanging in sunshine-yellow sheets from cliffs in the Nepalese Himalayas, these bee colonies are a vital source of income for honey hunters. But now they are moving up out of their foraging height of 3,500m to altitudes of up to 4,100m -- partly a result of pesticide use on mountain crops, but also, it seems, because of environmental factors. "Climate change has a great impact on the wild bee nests, mainly because it affects the availability of nectar and pollen for the bees," says Uma Partap of the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), a group that aims to protect Himalayan ecosystems and livelihoods. To combat this, the organisation is establishing a Centre of Excellence for Asian Bees and Pollination in Kathmandu, to protect wild bees and encourage sustainable honey hunting. The centre will research honeybee ecosystems across Asia. Attention has typically focused on just the western honeybee, but Partap hopes the centre's activities will rekindle interest in Asia's wild honeybee diversity, so other species get the investment they need to survive. "Bees contribute to livelihoods and enhance agriculture productivity," she says. "Yet populations are in decline."

This article was first published in the August 2014 issue of WIRED magazine